Scaredy Cat

About This Game
Scaredy Cat is a short narrative adventure about a young Kitty who really wants to prove that she's brave. One day, her friends dare her to go into the forest and find a rare flower. Kitty agrees, even though she is not exactly known for being fearless. So, for the first time, she leaves the safety of the city and heads into the forest on her own.
What starts as a simple dare slowly turns into something much bigger... The further Kitty goes, the stranger the forest becomes. She finds unfamiliar places, meets all kinds of characters, gets pulled into their problems, and starts to realise that being brave might be a little more complicated than simply not being scared.
Scaredy Cat is a small, story-focused game built around exploration, dialogue, quests, light platforming, and a few simple minigames.
A full playthrough usually takes around 15-30 minutes.

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Leave the City Behind
As you travel further away from home, you will visit different locations hidden throughout the forest. Some are peaceful, some are a little strange, and some are places Kitty probably would have preferred not to discover at all.
There is no huge open world to get lost in. Instead, the game is made up of smaller areas that you move through as the story progresses. You will follow paths, look for landmarks, find your way around obstacles, climb onto things that definitely look climbable, and occasionally stop to wonder whether going deeper into the forest was really such a good idea.

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Meet the Locals
The forest might look quiet, but Kitty is definitely not alone. Along the way, she will meet a number of characters living in and around the different locations she visits. Some of them are friendly, some of them are a little weird, and some of them have problems they would very much like Kitty to deal with.
Talking to characters is a big part of the game. Conversations help guide Kitty through the forest, introduce new quests, and give you a chance to learn more about the characters and the world around them.
The dialogue is often lighthearted and a little silly, but not every conversation is just there for a joke. As Kitty continues her journey, some moments become a little more personal.

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Help Out Along the Way
Kitty is technically supposed to be looking for the super-duper rare flower. Naturally, things do not stay that simple.
As you explore, you will pick up small quests and tasks from the characters you meet. The quests are intentionally simple. They are there to make the journey feel a little more alive, give you things to discover, and make the forest feel like a place where other characters are actually doing things of their own.

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Wander Around
Most of Scaredy Cat is about exploring and following the story, but walking from one conversation to another is not the only thing Kitty gets to do. There are small platforming sections throughout the game where you can jump, climb, and move across the environment.
You will also come across a few different gameplay moments and minigames along the way. They are short, simple interactions that help break up the exploration and make different parts of the adventure feel a little different from each other.

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A Small Story About Being Brave
At its core, Scaredy Cat is still a very small story. It's not about saving the world, fighting a giant monster, or becoming the greatest hero the forest has ever seen. It's about a young kitten who is scared, wants to prove that she's not, and decides that the best solution is obviously to walk into a dark forest completely alone.
As Kitty continues her journey, she has to deal with situations she did not expect and slowly figure out what being brave actually means to her. The game keeps things light and playful for most of the adventure, but underneath the jokes and strange characters, there is a more personal story about fear, confidence, and trying to prove something to yourself.

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What You Can Expect
A short story-focused adventure of around 15–30 minutes;

Several different locations across the city and forest;

Exploration and light platforming;

Small quests and tasks;

Lots of dialogue and character interactions;

A few simple minigames;

A mix of funny, cozy, mysterious, and slightly spooky moments;

Simple keyboard controls;

A story about fear, confidence, and what it means to be brave;

Completely free to play.

You don't need to be experienced with games to play Scaredy Cat! The controls are intentionally simple, the gameplay is fairly relaxed, and there is no combat. The main focus is on following Kitty's little adventure, meeting the characters, and seeing where the journey takes her.
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About the Project
Scaredy Cat originally started as a Summer Studies project at Kajaani University of Applied Sciences.
The game was created by a small student team in just a few months, and it eventually became our first game released on Steam. At the time, the goal was fairly simple: make a small narrative game, finish it, and actually release it.
Of course, after release, we immediately started noticing all the things we wanted to change.
Since then, we have continued working on the game whenever we had the chance. A lot of the updates came directly from watching people play. We brought the game to playtests and events, gave it to friends, read player feedback, and slowly collected a very long list of things that were confusing, awkward, broken, or simply could have been better.
Over time, we added more quests, improved navigation, changed parts of the environments, updated UI, improved cutscenes and transitions, added new gameplay moments, polished dialogue, fixed bugs, and generally tried to make the whole experience feel smoother.
So while Scaredy Cat is still a small student project at heart, it has grown quite a bit from the version we originally released. And honestly, we are pretty happy with that.

We hope you enjoy Kitty's adventure! :)